All The Wines....Two Corks Up!

Today was the day I chose to do something local. A good friend of mine who I had known from my last place of employment recently got a new job that she loves. She is a bartender/ wine taster server/tour guide at the Florida Orange Groves Winery in Pasadena, FL. Prior to her getting a job at the Winery, she was also a frequent customer of the same business. Isn't it nice when a person gets a job doing something they love? I think she's really lucky in this respect.

Anyway, I headed down to the Winery midday. It was not crowded at all and the admission was free. Tonight they are having a wine-tasting for $5 a person. My friend was happy to see me. She offered a tour of the winery plus a free tasting of 8 wines of my choice. Before the tour, she let me watch a video where the making and bottling of the wine was demonstrated and I learned a few things in the process. Bottling techniques were shown as well. The corks that are used at this facility are made of resin and do not fall apart when a corkscrew is inserted unlike other wines, where you get pieces of cork floating in them. Yuck!

A little background about Florida Orange Grove Winery...the Shook family started development of their unique wines in 1991 and the winery opened its door in Sept 1997. The wines made here are not like the wine you'd get at Napa, France, Italy or any other areas known for fine wines. The main ingredients of the wines at this winery are Florida grown such as citrus, tropical and berry wines. All of the wines are 100% fresh squeezed juice. The winery received an honor in 2000 in which the Florida Citrus Commission approved the use of one of its licensing marks on a beverage other than orange or grapefruit juice. The winery was granted the right to use the 'Florida Sunshine Tree' logo on all of their citrus wines.

Some of the products available include Wine Smoothie (Heaven in slushie form!), Port, Sherry, Sangria, Wine and Champagne. The ones I had the pleasure of enjoying today were Sparkling Cranberry (a bottle of which came home with me!); Sparkling Blueberry Blue; Blueberry Blue; Key Limen (which I would make a special trip back to get a bottle of this!); Mango Mamma; Festiberry; Orange Blossom Honey (which is also known as Mead) and Flamingo Fling Port (a head concoction of chocolate and raspberry!). As for the smoothies, I had Orange Creme Extreme Smoothie Mix (tastes a bit like an orange creamsicle with a kick to it!) and the delightful Key Limen Smoothie mix (which my friend told me can be served in a margarita glass with graham cracker crust on the rim! OMG...YUM!)

Everyone gets their choice of 8 wines plus 2 wine smoothies. If you would want more, I believe it's an added $5. I was also treated to a tiny cup of hot mulled wine. The mulling spices are sold in the store along with every wine-oriented gadget that you could imagine. There were glasses; wine bags; jams; jellies; dip mixes; wine bottle stoppers; corkscrews; and other nifty gifts with a Floridian air to them.

So having enjoyed my time there, I give Florida Orange Groves Winery two corks up! I would recommend this facility to anyone here in vacation or locals to give it a try.

The winery is open for tours and tastings daily 10:00am to 4:00pm, Mon-Sat and on Sunday from noon to 3:30pm. To find out more about this unique winery, feel free to visit www.floridawine.com.